Coin Tables
GURPS uses the "$" to denote prices but a GM may want more then that. Also they may want to know (especially in a D&D like setting) how much do they weigh. The Fantasy vs the Reality "Even near the "high Renaissance" (1500+ CE) large and heavy silver or gold coins were relatively rare. Large coins tended to be thin so they could be cut; Spanish milled dollar gets its nickname ("pieces of eight") because the coin was designed to be cut into eight pieces or bits. This silver coin is often confused with the doubloon, a gold coin of the period. Another problem with medieval money was there there was no standardization. Coin shape and quality varied from mint to mint. Nicking and counterfeiting were commonplace mainly because coin quality was so bad. It wasn't until 1786 and the efforts of William Boulton that coins would have a standardized shape which along with a milled edge helped combat nicking." Finally there are two ounce-pound systems when dealing with precious metals like silver and gold: avoirdupois and troy> Numismatics (coin collectors) prefer to avoid using the confusing ounce/pound reference and use either grains (480 to a troy ounce; 5760 to a troy pound, 437.5 to an avoirdupois ounce, and 7000 to an avoirdupois pound) or grams (15.432 grains) when dealing with the weight of coins. It should be mentioned that no one sane minted/mints 24 Karat/carot (1.000 fineness) gold coins for general circulation as they are too soft. The highest that does exist is .900 fineness or about 22 Karat/carot. AD&D1 and 2 Coins By having encumbrance represent weight and space taken up AD&D1 produced totally off the wall results with coins being way too large and by extension have too much precious metal in them. Assuming .900 fineness a single AD&D1 gold piece has about 1.31 (.900*700/480) troy ounces of gold in it or about $178.10 in 1977 when the players handbook came out and $297.68 in 1979 when the DMG came out. AD&D2 (1987) made things somewhat saner by making coins 1/5 the weight they were in AD&D1 but you are still talking about 0.26 troy ounces of gold in the average gold piece which in 1987 was about $105.92. While this is on par with the US Half Eagle ($5) of the 19th century it still makes gold coins much larger then they were in the historical middle ages. D&D3.5e retained AD&D2's 50 coins to an avoirdupois pound as did D&D5e again making the gold coins too heavy when compared to the historical middle ages. D&D coinage has two other problems. D&D's strange coin conversion ratio The first is that the 1 Platinum piece = 10 gold pieces = 20 electrum pieces = 100 silver pieces = 1,000 copper pieces ratio is at odds with the actual historical middle age conversion rates. The ratios represented by 19th century US coins is roughly what it was in the late (1400+) medieval period: 200 copper coins = 20 Silver coins = 1 gold coin. Around the time of the crusades the ratio for silver-gold was even wider. The Platinum piece problem The other problem is the very existence of a Platinum piece. Platinum was effectively unknown in Europe until around 1557 (firmly in TL4) and was not regarded as a precious metal. In fact, it was so much cheaper then gold that when the technology to actually process the metal appeared in the early 1700s counterfeiters were making platinum-gold coins. Platinum would not be formally studied until 1748 (Early TL5)Platinum, European discovery (wikipedia) and wouldn't be minted at coinage until 1820s and saw use as a regular national currency only once - in Russia between 1828 and 1845 (Late TL5). Historical Coins undebased mediaeval coins US Coins :Also see Coins of the United States dollar (wikipedia), Penny, Nickel, Quarter, Half-Dollar, and Dollar coin The Jefferson Nickel only contained silver from 1942 to 1945. As rough rule of thumb 20th century silver coins in the US stopped being minted for general circulation in the 1960s. References *Brett Evill (Usenet) - undebased mediaeval coins *John Candy's Ghost (Usenet) *"For the Sake of Change" by David Nalle (Dragon #63) *"A Player Character and His Money..." (Dragon #74) *"Just Give Me the Money" (Dragon #167) Category:Setting Concepts Category:Game Master Advice